"Actually we've got a nice little Saturday planned." - Frank the Tank

The weather this Saturday was great so B and I went for a run over the Ben Franklin and then took our bikes for some errands around Philly.  Our first stop was brunch at Varga.  B and I both ordered the egg white veggie omelet off the special menu and shared sides of cheddar grits and turkey bacon.

The grits and bacon were great, but the omelet was slimy and entirely overwhelmed by truffle (to be fair, B completely disagreed with my distaste for the dish and entirely cleaned his plate).  Given that I ate little for brunch, after a few stops (including Benjamin's on the Row, a quirky cobbler who charges only $15 for shoe stretching no matter how many rounds of stretching you need to undergo to get it right) and some shopping, we stopped by Slice for a piece of pizza.

I had plain, B pepperoni and mushroom.  The pizza was great, and they had the Phillies on the big screen.

After a few final afternoon errands, we stopped in at National Mechanics and then Drinkers for the last few legs of a pub crawl raising money for cancer research.  The crawl continued well into the evening but around 8 we split off with my pal MMA and her boyfriend RR for dinner at Khyber.  Until about three months ago, Khyber was a notorious music venue.  Beginning as a middle eastern jazz bar, Khyber morphed into a breakout spot hosting early shows by Beck, Guided by Voices, a secret gig by Iggy Pop, and the list goes on.  Unfortunately it was less successful in later years - due as much to competition in the marketplace as to the trendy "reinvention" of Old City Philadelphia.  Thankfully, this Philadelphia mainstay has been given new life as a pub featuring an impressive beer list and southern-inspired bar food.

We started with the wing sampler and the bacon-grease popcorn.

The wings, grilled and smothered in chipotle-bourbon barbecue, buffalo, and honey-habanero sauce (respectively from left), were tender and juicy.  My favorite was the chipotle-bourbon barbecue (beware: the honey-habanero brings some serious heat).

The bacon-grease popcorn was just as finger-licking delicious as it sounds.

For dinner I had the fried green tomato blt and B had the half-and-half po boy (half fried shrimp, half fried oyster).

The blt was absolutely amazing, although I was barely able to finish half, made only more amazing by the cheddar fries with debris gravy I ordered on the side. 

The roll on the po boy was crusty on the outside while soft on the inside, and the oysters and shrimp were both golden fried but neither rubbery or greasy.  B's side of mac and cheese struck a nice balance between cheesy and gooey and had a nice crunch due to the breadcrumb topping (here's a tip, try dipping a few bites of the mac and cheese in the debris gravy - yum).

After rolling ourselves out of there we headed home to watch SNL.  My friend Sarah co-wrote the digital short this week, and has been asked to stay on as a writer for the remainder of the season.  Congrats!